Though the new Empyreans Faction has dominated the spotlight of the Warcaster: Neo-Mechanika Collision Course Kickstarter campaign so far, Collision Course further amps up the mayhem by introducing a new unit type to the game. Blazing across the battlefield to deliver a potent array of firepower, vehicles are independent models that can be customized like warjacks. Vehicles are fast, maneuverable, and can take a beating. Each has an integral fixed weapon, a customizable hardpoint for a primary weapon, and an optional pilot that turns your vehicle into a Hero!
The Collision Course offerings include a vehicle for each Faction: the heavily armored Razorbat for the Marcher Worlds; the sleek Interceptor for the Iron Star Alliance; the brutal Scythe for the Aeternus Continuum; and the robotic Zenith for the Empyreans. Each vehicle comes with three different weapons options that can be used to customize your model, and the Hero pilots come with an optional fourth weapon that can only be selected for use by the Hero variant of the vehicle.
As a new unit type, vehicles are superficially much closer to warjacks than solos or squads but have some unique qualities all their own. In addition to being customizable like warjacks, when a vehicle makes its attacks, it can attack with all of its weapons like a warjack. Vehicles, however, can only be charged with a single Arc, like squads and solos. To compensate for this seeming lack of raw arcane power, each vehicle comes with a Maneuver card that lists the three Maneuvers the vehicle can perform. Vehicles can generally perform one Maneuver at the start of each of their activations, though the Interceptor’s High Performance special rule enables it to spike to use two Maneuvers during a single activation.
The Maneuvers themselves have a wide spectrum of effects tailored to each individual vehicle, from the Zenith’s Sequence Alpha Maneuver that keeps it from getting an activation token at the end of its activation to the Scythe’s Wing Roll, which enables it to make an attack targeting any models foolish enough to target it with an attack and miss. The Razorbat’s Guns Ready Maneuver grants it an attack when an enemy model gets too close to the heavily armed hover tank.
Each Hero pilot also comes with its own Maneuver card that includes the three Maneuvers available to the standard Vehicle as well as two new Maneuvers only available to the Hero. For example, in addition to having the Interceptor’s Evasive Action, Full Burn, and Sky Hunter Maneuvers, the Interceptor’s Hero pilot Duchess additionally has access to the Pursuit Intercept and Strafing Run Maneuvers. Pursuit Intercept grants additional power dice on attack rolls against models with Flight and grants additional movement when the Hero vehicle destroys an enemy model. Strafing Run both gives the vehicle’s Fixed Guns Strafe and adds a power die to the vehicle’s attack rolls against warrior models.
The Hero pilots themselves have slightly higher stats than the standard versions of the vehicles and also offer some other unique capabilities. The Aeternus Continuum’s Scythe pilot Aenigma, for example, has the ability to channel Fury Cyphers like a Weaver. And choosing to arm Aenigma’s vehicle with her unique Hellfire Cannon option further extends the range of Furies channeled through her.
Execrator Nix, the poor star-crossed Empyrean soul imprisoned in the shell of a Zenith, has the ability to spike to place a void gate like a warrior model. The Razorbat is both the toughest and arguably most offensively powerful of the vehicles with its Maelstrom Activator special rule that enables it to spike to attack a second time with each of its weapons. And it only becomes all the more lethal when piloted by Fiddler & Co. The vehicle then picks up the Shoot & Scoot Maneuver, allowing it to move 1˝ each time it makes an attack, and it gains access to the experimental Particle Blaster weapon, one of the most destructive ranged weapons in the game.
There are some obvious drawbacks to vehicles, of course. They are large, loud, and hard to conceal—as a result, vehicles cannot gain cover or use stairs, ladders, etc. Because they are not warrior models, vehicles cannot (generally) place void gates. Further, Hero vehicles are NOT Hero solos; a Hero vehicle must occupy a “unit slot” to be included in your force.
Vehicles add fast-moving, powerful new weapons to add to your arsenal. Each has both a fixed and customizable primary weapon that enables you to tailor the vehicle’s armament to your preferred play style. Instead of benefitting from a warjack’s ability to be charged with large amounts of Arc, vehicles instead have Maneuvers that enhance and vary the model’s performance from activation to activation, keeping them dangerously unpredictable.
Learn more and back the project at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/privateerpress/warcaster-collision-course
